A developer has backed out of a deal to wipe out the course and replace it with 335 homes, and
club manager Dave Limes is relieved but weary.

“So we’re back to an 18-hole golf course,” Limes said yesterday, as golfers streamed in to play.
“I don’t know if I can go through much more of these.”

The course’s demise seemed almost certain just a few months ago, when the Minerva Park Village
Council began the process of accepting developer Fischer Homes’ preliminary plans and annexing the
golf course’s 100-some acres, which are part of Blendon Township.

Neighbors of the golf course in the North Side village steeled themselves for the loss of their
quiet backyards and scenic views. Even Limes began to accept that his job was going away.

But they’d been through this before, in 2004, when a different developer tried to buy the land
at 2955 Minerva Lake Rd. That proposal fell apart in 2005.

This time, the deal ended with a letter on Wednesday to Mayor Lynn Eisentrout and the village
council. Jason Wisniewski, vice president of planning and zoning for Grand Communities, part of
northern Kentucky-based Fischer, wrote that his company was withdrawing its annexation and rezoning
requests because of conditions imposed by the village. Wisniewski made it clear that he wasn’t
looking for a compromise. Grand Communities, he wrote, had terminated its agreement to buy the golf
course.

“We just found too many requirements were placed upon the project” that made it financially
unfeasible, he said yesterday. “There were numerous negotiations between us and the village, but
the net result was we just could not come to an agreement.”

Eisentrout said that although discussions were open and Fischer was “wonderful” to work with,
the two sides simply reached an impasse. Village residents, she said, weren’t upset to hear that
the deal fell apart.

And so driving and putting will continue at Minerva Lake, where Limes had been waiting for word
to shut the course down. He expected as little as 30 days notice. Leagues had abandoned the club,
transferring to courses that wouldn’t suddenly disappear.

Now, Limes has been told that the course will remain open at least through the end of 2015,
though he expects it will last much longer.

“Minerva Lake Golf Course is here until someone else shows interest in it,” he said. “I think
this is going to stay a golf course for a long time to come.”